A study on the impact of melting ice coats in the Arctic that has been conducted by Dimitry Yumashev and a team of researchers at Lancaster University, was published on the journal Nature Communications on April 23. The study is entitled “Climate policy implications of nonlinear decline of Arctic land permafrost and other cryosphere elements”, and its conclusion was that a growth in the cost of global warming could happen as there is an increase of carbon dioxide and methane from the melting permafrost, mixed with extra absorption of heat from the sun as a result of sea ice mirroring sunlight away from the surface of the Earth. The cost could go up to $70 trillion.
This study is the first to measure the economic effect of permafrost melt and lowered albedo (a measure of how much light hitting the surface is mirrored without being consumed), based on the most advanced computer patterns of what is probably going to happen in the Arctic as temperatures are increasing, and it reveals how weaken natural systems will aggravate the issue caused by man-made discharges, making it more challenging and expensive to deal with.
A Lack Of Urgency is Prevailing
Even at 1.5 C to 2 C, there are effects and expenses because of the melting permafrost, but the temperatures are significantly lower for this synopsis compared to business like always. The disheartening thing is that we have the technology and policy tools to limit the warming but we are not moving quick enough, Yumashev said.
The one good thing that can be found in the study is that the impact from the thawing permafrost and absence of sea ice could possibly be a little it lower than prior predictions. However, this is not a reason to have contended because the study has an amount of uncertainty because even at the bottom point, the casualties are enormous.
If the researchers’ predictions are accurate, the economic cost of climate change will eventually add up to hundreds of trillions of dollars, and a bit of prevention today could save countless amounts of money in the future, reduce human suffering and loss of life that will ultimately hold a warmer planet.
